“There had to be some way to stop the leadership from engaging in self-sabotage. And yet, I was familiar with this tendency: a startup hires an experienced engineer but then ignores their advice, because the leadership only wants to hear upbeat, positive, euphoric declarations about the project, how easy it will be, and how much wealth it will bring in. Any attempt at realism is ignored. And with some of my previous clients, I never found a way to break through; I was never able to get them to see reality.”